This invention relates to a sliver coiler including a support arrangement for positioning the running sliver as it is delivered by a carding machine, a rotary head assembly including an orbiting sliver trumpet through which the sliver passes as it runs from the support arrangement; and calender rollers arranged underneath the sliver trumpet and orbiting therewith. After the sliver passes through the calender rollers, it is deposited in continuous coils into a rotating coiler can disposed underneath the rotary head assembly.
In a known apparatus the sliver supporting arrangement includes a sliver deflecting roller which is situated above the rotary head assembly and which rotates about an approximately horizontal axis. The distance between the sliver deflecting roller and the rotary head assembly is greater than the radius of the rotary head assembly, and the angle of the connecting line between the trumpet and the roller to the (generally horizontal) plane in which the head assembly rotates is approximately 70.degree.. In such an arrangement, at high sliver speeds of, for example, more than 300 m/min, the risks are high that the unsupported sliver significantly bulges outwardly under the effect of centrifugal forces and may rupture. It is a further disadvantage of the above-outlined known arrangement that in the zone of the sliver support arrangement dust and other impurities are released into the working hall of the fiber processing plant.